Kamala Harris Wants to Fine Companies That Pay Men More Than Women

Share it

Gender inequity costs the United States $2 trillion in lost GDP and Senator Kamala Harris has a plan to curb at least one way that gender-based inequity hurts the economy and women’s bank accounts.

Harris, who is one of the 23 people running to be the Democratic nominee for president, is unveiling a new proposal designed to make companies prove that they aren’t discriminating against women by paying men more for the same work. If they can’t, the policy would hit the discriminatory companies where it hurts—their wallets.

Under Harris’s plan, companies with over 100 employees would be required to apply for “Equal Pay Certification” from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the AP reports, and disclose whether they are “Equal Pay Certified” on the homepage of their websites. Companies that don’t meet the threshold for certification would be fined “1% of their profits for every 1% wage gap they allow to persist for work of equal value,” with fines decreasing over time as they figure out their BS out and start paying people equitably. Harris estimates that alone would generate $180 billion over 10 years.